"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 ESV
The commission to "make disciples" is not a pick and choose proposition. It is an expectation. We have benefitted from the discipleship we received, when someone was obedient to this same commission, and we were made into disciples. We need to catch the same vision, and become disciple-makers.
Ed Stetzer, a Southern Baptist leader with considerable experience planting churches says, "Being a missionary is never eary, but when culture change has taken place in one's own home, it is even more difficult."
Was he speaking directly to our church?
The culture change that has transformed the entire city of Houston has also had a major impact on our "home," and the problem is that it continues to change. As soon as you get used to what it has become, it is in the process of becoming something else. One thing, however, is certain, and that is the clear fact that it is nothing like it once was when the dozen or so Southern Baptist churches that dot the area were planted, took root, and grew back in the 40's, 50's and 60's. Most of them, Garden Oaks included, occupy buildings that were built in the 50's to accomodate much larger congregations than they do now. We have some people who are cleaning out old filing cabinets, and just yesterday we came upon a Sunday School record book from 1949. I turned one of the pages and noted that we had 358 in Sunday School on the first Sunday in July of that year, before our current sanctuary and educational space was constructed. Last Sunday, we had 176, and 207 in worship. Change has come to Garden Oaks, one way or another.
"Our job is to reach the lost world and bring greater glory to God," says Ed Stetzer. "Yet, rather than engaging the new cultural change, the most prevalent Christian response is to pretend that there has been no shift. The church continues to function as it always has, protecting its youth in summer camp, keeping its members listening to Christian music and, as a whole, staying away from change. This is the easiest approach, but it is not the way of Christ."
Thank God there is at least one voice like that of Ed Stetzer among Southern Baptists!
We keep hearing the word "postmodern" in describing the culture that has become predominant all around us, but which is virtually absent from our church. The fact is, they are absent from just about every church. One of their characteristics is that they have been raised in a home in which they have never been to church, and as a result, they do not have a reference point to "come back." They perceive Christianity as bigoted, narrow-minded, restrictive and outdated and this perception has been underscored by what they have been taught in the schools they've attended. They are, for the most part, affluent, and they are captured by both their money and their technology.
There is no predictable pattern involved in reaching postmoderns with the gospel. What works in one setting might fail in another. The biggest problem is overcoming the very first obstacle, and that is trust. Most postmoderns do not trust Christians, and that has to be overcome first, before any foundation can be laid to share the gospel. These are not people who respond to tracts being handed out, or Bibles being distributed, or advertisements and appeals to come to events with a Christian theme. With all of those barricades in place, how do you get close enough for them to see the hope that is within you, that Peter speaks about in 1 Peter 3:15?
Wednesday, March 4, we are going to engage in a discussion focused on gaining a vision of reaching the postmodern population with the gospel. Join us in the fellowship hall for dinner at 5:30, and Bible study at 6:30.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
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4 comments:
I think our church has made some progress in doing some things which help with our ability to assimilate members who come from the postmodern generation, if we manage to reach them, but we're not there yet, and we have lost a lot of people because we don't really know what we are doing. We can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results. Fortunately, we still have a staff member who has a pretty good idea of what is going on in the area around us, and if we will listen, maybe we can learn something about how to reach the people who live there.
You can share Christ successfully with postmodern people. It is being done, and there are churches which are assimilating them into their active membership. It isn't easy, it takes time and requires patience, but it can be done. The problem Garden Oaks is going to have doing it is that I don't think there are very many members who are either able to understand that things are so much different now, or are interested in doing much outreach to people who are not like us. Unfortunately, there are not that many of those kind of people left in the area anymore. It's not that we can't do it, it's more like we won't.
We shouldn't be in the entertainment business like the big churches are. We can't compete with that anyway, and that isn't what being the body of Christ is all about. God put us here for a reason. Yes, some people have left, either following the pastor or following someone else, and that's not right, but we are still here and we have a reason for being here. It's like Lee said last night, we need to follow the leading of the word and the power of the Spirit and be willing to be used for whatever God wants to do. So many people are moving in here and we can't depend on just the staff to be the ones trying to reach them.
Hey, thanks to everyone who reads and comments! That's great! I'm glad people are reading and getting something out of this.
Our church is at a crucial point, something I have been saying for quite some time now. It has become especially intense since the departure of our last pastor, and the resulting departure of members. That's something we come to expect when we lose a pastor, but the pattern here has been that the number of people who emerge from the loss are fewer than the number of people who were here when he came. That cannot happen again, if our church is to continue to exist.
There have been some bright spots during the past three years. Our worship attendance reached 270 average at one point last year, and our Bible study was approaching 240, both five year high marks. Of the 68 people who visited our New Faces luncheons, about 40 of them contributed to our "velcro factor". Their presence has helped us through this time, and several of them are participating in the life of the church through leadership or ministry positions. That's a good assimilation record.
We are now ready to take the next step, and move deliberately toward evangelistic outreach.
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